Barbera d’Asti Il Risveglio del Ceppo

Thanks to a number of factors that take into account a greater awareness of its own possibilities and a feeling of being part of a project that focuses on its origins, the Cantina Sociale Barbera dei Sei Castelli has embarked on a path of change capable of generating a significant impact in the territory in terms of economic and image spillovers.

The Barbera dei Sei Castelli Social Winery of Agliano

The winery, founded in 1960, has 344 members and 650 hectares of vineyards. It represents the main player when we talk about Barbera d’Asti, to which are added small productions of Cortese, Chardonnay, Grignolino, Dolcetto, Brachetto and Moscato. As Enzo Gerbi, oenologist and director of 6 Castelli since 1997, recalls. “Without cooperation the small realities would not have held up, if there had been no Cantina the landscape would not be this“. And that’s right: cooperation has safeguarded not only the local agricultural economy, but also The landscape and cultural identity of the area ..

In more recent years (2018-2021), new technological investments and the introduction of renewable energy sources have marked a new phase. In 2022, the first vintage of the project “The Awakening of the Stump” was celebrated. Followed in 2023 by the opening of the new store in Agliano, designed as a place for meeting and discovery before pleasure.

The Stump Revival Project

The focus is really on “The Awakening of the Strain,” the outcome of eleven years of research carried out in collaboration with the CNR and the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of Turin. Between 2009 and 2010, the company notes that. century-old vineyards were disappearing, the stumps planted in the early postwar period were now at the end of their life cycle. It was decided to recover that genetic heritage and safeguard something unique.

It all started with a study of 34 very old strains, from which four individuals were selected as the most genetically representative. Subsequently, replanted in a test vineyard, called an “ark,” to conserve and hand down the original biodiversity of Barbera d’Asti and produce a wine, in small quantities, that can synthesize a work of a very relevant historical importance for future generations.

Aging takes place in a special egg-shaped barrel, designed to promote natural and continuous movement of the wine within it. A dynamic environment that allows even distribution of substances while maintaining integrity and freshness. The barrel is located within the “Soul of Wine” museum., inside the Agliano store, alongside some 20 works by artist Ezio Ferraris, born in 1957.

The artist Enzo Ferraris

The artist, struck by the fantastic shapes of the root system and vine stumps of an old vineyard grubbed up by his father Achille, decides to look for others and make them into an art form. And it is precisely observation of these natural forms of pre-phylloxera vineyards. that inspired the birth of the winery’s genetic design.

Ferraris, in his “Spirits of the Vineyard” project, born in 1975, has chosen from more than five hundred thousand specimens in about 35 years of research throughout the Asti region, without intervening to shape them because “the work is the work of nature, which becomes the artist par excellence.” Suggestive are some vine forms, whose names given faithfully recall their shape: from “The Archer” to “The Dancer,” to “The Finch” and “The Happy Couple.”

Barbera d’Asti Il Risveglio del Ceppo 2022 Barbera dei Sei Castelli

Score: 93/100
Approximate price in wine shop: € 28

100% Barbera. After temperature-controlled fermentation and maceration, it matures in large barrels for 18 months, followed by a 10-month rest in bottles.
Ruby red color tending toward purplish. On the nose, hints of cherry, plum and dried rose. The sip is of great harmony and persistence: good concentration and freshness make this Barbera enjoyable even today, but with an evolutionary potential of at least five more years.